Singapore GP declared F1's first 'heat hazard' race

Formula 1's governing body has declared this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix a 'heat hazard' race.

The FIA's ruling, triggered because temperatures are predicted to exceed 31C amid high humidity in the tropical environment, means drivers could be using cooling vests during the race.

Using the vests is not mandatory but teams must fit the system to their cars to ensure any drivers not using them does not gain an advantage by having a lighter car.

The Singapore Grand Prix marks the first time a race has been designated as a heat hazard under a new rule that was introduced this year.

However, it will not be the first time drivers have used the vests - teams have been testing them intermittently through the year.

Williams driver Carlos Sainz, a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, said that the FIA's decision to declare a heat hazard was "fair".

"Only hot is not too bad for us," Sainz said. "We have that, for example, in Hungary where it gets really hot but it's not humid.

"Humid on its own is not too bad at all if it's not too hot. But when it's 28C, 30C degrees plus humid, that's when it gets to Singapore levels and it's tough."

Singapore has long been renowned as the toughest grand prix because of the combination of heat, humidity, the length of the race, which runs close to the maximum two-hour limit, and the bumpy track surface at Marina Bay.

• How to follow Singapore Grand Prix on the BBC

Why was the heat hazard rule brought in?

The idea of a driver-cooling system was intimated after the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix, when heat and humidity left several drivers on the brink of collapse.

A number of drivers needed medical attention after the race, Frenchman Esteban Ocon vomited in his helmet, and Williams driver Logan Sargeant retired because he could not cope with the conditions any longer.

The drivers have had a mixed response to the vests, with some feeling they are uncomfortable and not especially effective.

Sainz said: "Teams are managing to make it work better and better every time we run it. At the beginning, we had it to work more or less for half an hour. Hopefully now the whole system can work at least for an hour.

"It's a two-hour race. I've done it 10 times in Singapore. If it breaks or it doesn't work, I'm not worried. I'll do the race and jump out fresh like I always do. But if it works, it's better, because then you suffer a bit less."

Sainz said he had used the system in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this year, and it lasted about 15-20 minutes.

Mercedes' George Russell tried it out in Bahrain, and said that it was "definitely very noticeable".

Russell added at the time: "At the start of the race, it was about 16°C pumping around my body, which feels quite nice when you're in a cockpit that's 50°C-plus."

How does the system work?

Temperatures in the cockpit of an F1 car can be more than 40C, and drivers are wearing several layers of fireproof clothing in addition to a balaclava and helmet, so overheating is a serious concern.

The driver wears a fireproof vest fitted with a tube through which a cooled liquid is fed by a pump.

The rules say that the system should last for the entire race, but not all teams have managed to make it run for that long.

And the complication is that when the system stops working, it can make the drivers hotter than they would otherwise have been.

That's because the vest fitted with the cooling system is an insulator and the liquid can end up hotter than the ambient temperature because of the temperature of the cars.

Teams have approached the design and fitting of the system in different ways depending on their individual cars.

Some have fitted the cooling device and pump at the front of the chassis, others by the side-impact structures beside the cockpit and others inside the chassis.